
You’re correct. In addition you could strafe using left/right C buttons, and you could look up/down using up/down C buttons, but that was awkward and not really designed to aim.
But we also must remember that those games had an auto lock system. Your character would actually target the ennemies by himself, you would only use the crosshair to dona headshot when you have time to aim, or to aim at a specific object in the game.
But yeah, that seems so clunky compared to what we have today


You said it yourself: you had spent a lot of time learning the patterns, but had grown frustrated by that time. Basically you’d have two choices
At the end of the day, the most important element is to have fun. But even with summons, victory is never underserved, those games are still brutal.
Lore and writing wise? You’re completely right, I’d think the characters would be expected to go in Tartarus on a regular basis, progressing from miniboss to miniboss I guess.
Gameplay wise? We’re kinda pushed doing it at once very quickly to get some money, and more importantly, to free up some time for social activities. So to optimize a bit the flow, I do the same : go to the end in one day, then go back towards the end of the month for the quests, finding missing people, etc